Tac-Scan won't start, but Supercharger hack will

[+thegoldenband]

I tried running Tac-Scan on my Harmony cart tonight (BIOS/firmware v. 1.05). The game would boot, but when I pressed fire to start gameplay, nothing would happen. My paddles were working normally, but I tried other sets as well, with the same result. Unfortunately, I don't have an original Tac-Scan to compare.

 

However, when I switched over to versions of Tac-Scan marked as "Supercharger hack", then I was able to start the game normally. This suggests that something is going wrong on the Harmony end of things, no?

 

Here are the ROMs I tried. If it's relevant, my Atari is a light sixer.

 

Wouldn't start:

Tac-Scan (Paddle) (1982) (Sega) (001-01) ~.bin [from ROM's 5.0 collection, identical in his 7.0 collection; modification date 2/27/96]

Tac-Scan (Unknown) (PAL).bin [ditto; modification date 7/29/01]

 

Would start:

Tac-Scan (Supercharger Conversion Hack) (2005) (Kurt Howe).bin

Tac-Scan Supercharger Edition (Tac-Scan Hack) (2005) (Kurt Howe).bin [almost certainly the same as above]

Tac-Scan Paddle (Tac-Scan Hack) (2003) (Christopher Tumber).bin

[alex_79]

I tried running Tac-Scan on my Harmony cart tonight (BIOS/firmware v. 1.05). The game would boot, but when I pressed fire to start gameplay, nothing would happen. My paddles were working normally, but I tried other sets as well, with the same result. Unfortunately, I don't have an original Tac-Scan to compare.

 

However, when I switched over to versions of Tac-Scan marked as "Supercharger hack", then I was able to start the game normally. This suggests that something is going wrong on the Harmony end of things, no?

 

Nope, the vcs is executing the exact same code no matter if you are using the real cart or the rom in the Harmony.

 

The NTSC version of Tac-Scan uses the second paddle on RIGHT port, while the PAL version only uses Joysticks. The hacks corrected this weird behaviour and use the first paddle on left port.

 

Stella has pre-configured controller options for known roms, so it redirects the keyboard/joystick/mouse inputs on the pc to the correct controller ports in the emulated console.

[+thegoldenband]

Hmmm, I'm 99% sure I've tried both paddles on every occasion, though.

 

(Interesting that the PAL version uses joysticks, I'll check that out tomorrow!)

[alex_79]

Have you tried both controller ports also? As I said the NTSC version uses the RIGHT one, unlike most games.

Ensure that the paddles buttons are working right. You can use the TestCart to check them.

[+thegoldenband]

Mi dispiace, Alex -- my mistake, as I sleepily misread your earlier post. The Tac-Scan ROM works fine if I swap the paddles into the second port after booting (or use a second set).